Myth and Memory
by Buddyboy98
Summary: The Dark Dragon has awoken, Lao Shi and Jake are forced on a perilous quest that will take them 5,000 Years into the history of their family and with a little help along the way, they'll find the secret that will finally end the Dark Dragon. Rose/Jake.
1. Introduction

**Introduction**

There were once two brothers that rose to become the lords of a region in the Chinese Kingdom of Xia, three thousand years before the birth of Jesus Christ and five thousand years before a boy named Jacob Long would be born in a country that was located in a part of the world that wasn't known to exist. They were beloved by the people that they ruled and in the numerous uprisings that were commonplace in the time period, the people of their lands defended their lords with uncharacteristic vigor. They were magnetic in their personalities, brilliant, handsome and very brave.

Their bravery was legendary, and also envied.

Envied so much that a band of rival kings from other Chinese Kingdoms banded together to ruin the two brothers and their family for the rest of time. This band of Kings was so desperate to diminish the power of the brothers that they engaged in a practice of witchcraft and speaking to beings from other worlds. It took ten years for them to gather the appropriate resources and in that time, the brothers had married and grown their family into the dozens. These children as well as their fathers and mothers would suffer the first blow of an action that would change history.

The band of kings had made a bargain with an ancient spirit known as Amal that would prove costly for the Kings.

In exchange for cursing the brothers and their descendants until the end of time itself by transforming them and all of their heirs and descendants into monstrous, terrifying beings, the band of kings had to do one thing: _they and their subjects had to worship him like a god_. However, when the Nobility of the Kingdoms found out about this, they were outraged at the sacrilege and delivered an ultimatum to them: _stop this or we'll destroy you_. The Kings, being the typical monarchs, capitulated and refused to uphold their end of the bargain.

Amal, completely outraged by his betrayal, could not reverse the damage done by the curse, but he could alter other things.

Instead of being bloodthirsty, terrifying beasts, he gave them the power to transform at will back into their human forms and took away their need to feast upon humans. He gave them unnatural powers that made their senses ultra-powerful in both human and beast forms and the ability to breathe flame. He also gave them the ability to inspire and to be incredibly charismatic, to almost put people in a trance and the ability to make people follow them onto death. The abilities of magic were given to the brothers and their family to wield, they could also share or give this magic to other people as well. To spite the traitorous Kings, he gave them the ability to transform others people into the beasts, to create massive armies like them, but the final gift was also given to them out of spite for the other rulers, it was a gift that allowed them the possibility to rule the Earth.

The gift of immortality, this gift was for the brothers to decide how to disperse and it was a very tricky gift.

The Immortality was assured if the person who possessed the gift was not killed be another's hands, if they lived a passive life, they would live forever, if they lived a barbarous life, they would perish. And thus, with these gifts, the brothers and their family set out for their revenge.

One by one, the kingdoms of modern day China fell to the power of these brothers until at last they ruled all. But they could not stop there, with armies that went into the millions and with immortality at their feet, the next seventy years were spent conquering what would known as Eastern Siberia, South East Asia, Korea, Manchuria, Parts of India, Mongolia and Japan. They had forged a massive Empire, an Empire that would become known for the next three thousand years as the Su-Chin-Draco Empire and would rule the entire planet for two thousand years.

To their subjects, they became known as Draco.

Or what the word would eventually turn into, _Dragon_.

Although, in the final years of their campaigns to conquer the world, the full extent of the Immortality Gift would become known.

After the death of the first brother at the hands of a Barbarian Tribe in what would become Modern Day Germany, the second brother assumed the title of Emperor and he would rule his Empire without interruption for 1,500 Years and would enslave the entire population of humans in that time. But after that 1,500 Year Mark, he began to lose his memory, he began to gradually forget things until one day, he forgot himself.

His youngest daughter, who had been the last of her siblings to received the immortal gift and his favorite, was made regent and within a year was crowned Empress. Her reforms and her passivity in ruling angered her cousins, the descendants of the long slain first brother. Her chief rival, her eldest cousin, Marrierk was particularly dangerous in that he was able to gain the support of the Military and that of the Imperial Family's personal bodyguards. With the permission of the Military and the Guard, he went to his cousin, the Empress and told her to step down, renounce the gift and name him as successor. The Empress, Majarhet, for fear of her own life and that of her father, whom was under her personal care, said she agreed, but instead of she and her father renouncing their gifts, they would keep their gifts of immortal life and the Dragon Powers and she would order her side of the family including her children, as Empress not as their Family Member, to renounce their gifts of immortal life and remove them from the line of succession to the throne.

Majarhet would not live without her father, so much that she would make her children forsake their immortality and that of their descendants, so that she and her father could keep their lives. It was selfish, yes, but it was also born out of love for the man who gave her eternal life.

Marrierk, seeing this as his way of ascending without claims from his cousins, giddily agreed to the terms, even offering his cousin and her side of their incredibly large family safe passage off the Capital Island.

And thus, the Empress Majarhet and her father retained their immortal lives, while the rest of their branch of the family did not.

After his cousins were safely out of sight and out of mind, the now Emperor Marrierk reigned with an evil in his heart and an Iron fist.

Much to his surprise though, Amal, the source of his family's immeasurable power grew angered. Marrierk had upset the balance of nature. And so, he delivered upon the humans, the subjects of the Dragon Imperial Family, abilities that did not match the Dragons in intensity, but had enough power behind them to overthrow them. In no less than two hundred years, Marrierk and his actions caused the Dragon Empire to collapse and for Humans to take their rightful place as rulers of the Earth once again. At the onset of the revolution, a group of nobles formed a council, or what would later be referred to as the Dragon Council, stripped Emperor Marrierk of his Imperial Power, banished him and his family and took heavy measures to conceal themselves on the former Capital Island of the Empire, or what would be known later as the _'Isle of Draco'. _

After three years of banishment, the first brother's descendants and those of Marrierk were hunted down and killed by a group of humans that would later be known as _'Huntsclan' _all accept Marrierk. He was the only one on his side of the family to escape and he would later go onto become one of the darkest forces the world had ever seen, and he lives currently into modern times. To his subjects, he was known as his Imperial Majesty, Autocrat of the Earth, Marrierk, but to the descendants of his subjects, knowledge of this time had all but faded out and he was simply known as the Dark One, or The Dark Dragon. His evil and his immortal life were bound into one, and it would take a force of the gods themselves to kill him because of that. Many had tried, all of them had failed except for one, _his_ history is bound to the Dark One in more ways than one.

With the Dark One presumed dead, the Dragons returned to an age of peace.

And as for other side of the Imperial Family? They married, had children, and their children had children and so on and so forth. Their family and their genes spread to every continent on Earth. The family had gotten so large that the one particular gene, that of Amal's curse, or that of the Dragon was selective in what body it took over. One generation of the family were dragons, the next were not. The gene was so diluted by the time of the 21st Century, most of the family, save a select few that returned to serve the Dragon Council, did not know of their heritage or that of their Imperial Blood. Balance had been restored to the world, and at last, Amal could rest and forget the mess that he had created.

After all, his creation had become something of folklore to the Humans as time had passed. He had assisted in that to cover up their existence as well. He had used his power to make sure to contain their existence and make them a myth. that was the crucial restoring balance to the natural order of things

In Dragon Culture, knowledge of these events is only in a select few people. Most of them are descendants of the Empress Majarhet and her father. But it is recorded in one incredibly ancient book. It had seen battles, it had seen peace, it had seen opulence and it had seen tyranny, but in modern times, it sees itself sitting on a bookshelf in an electronic store on Canal Street in Manhattan, New York. Cared for by none other than a direct descendant of the Empress Majarhet and her father, the second brother, Luong Lao Shi and his grandson, Jacob Long.

As for the Empress Majarhet and her father?

No one really knows.

The people who did know were long since dead.

They were immortal, and with their passive nature, the diseases and plagues of the five _millennium _that had taken place between their receiving of the gifts of Amal and the 21st Century could not have killed them. Perhaps the hundreds of wars that had gone on since then had killed them?

Then again, they were passive and perhaps they stayed out of history's way.

But the time would soon be upon their descendants to find the answers.

* * *

><p><strong>Authors Note: I told you it was something of a change. You have no idea the amount of weeks I researched to make this creationist story even possible. It took me a whole month to fill the plot holes that I saw. If you spot any, please feel free to tell me. Well what do you think? Should I continue this or scrap it? Oh, and I should tell you that for this to work, let's pretend that the Dark Dragon was never introduced, but at the same time, that Huntsclan has never been destroyed and Jake's just about to graduate High School? Can you do that for me? **

**Please? **


	2. Chapter 1 – Discoveries

**Chapter 1 – Discoveries**

It was all based on a legend, but he had a hunch that it was the right place to commence the dig. The entire operation was based off of a triangulation from a series of maps that were stolen from a Magical Bank Vault three months prior. He had commissioned the best cartographers in the Huntsclan and they had pinpointed the location to a South East Asian jungle in Vietnam. After two weeks of moving the digging and living equipment from Hawaii and $2 Million Dollars in payoffs to get the equipment and men into the heavily Communist Country, it was just about to pay off.

Lucas Huntsman, or as he was known by his servants, the Huntsman, was looking down from the observation tower into the large tunnel that they had been digging as the drill finally stopped. He picked up a pair of binoculars from the table beside him and looked down at the drill.

The solid _titanium_ drill had been stopped by what appeared to by limestone, and that was odd enough. You didn't find limestone in the jungles of South East Asia. You didn't even find it in this hemisphere. Lucas smiled, they were onto something. Perhaps his fears of even considering following the maps were unfounded. Setting the binoculars down, he turned to his assistant and motioned down to the limestone wall, "Tune my staff to break through it."

"There's something wrong about this Master," The man responded as if he hadn't heard the order. No matter how much the man might have been right, he was still a servant and he was still required to follow orders.

Sighing, he snatched hiss staff from the corner and began to input the appropriate energy output that the staff would discharge when he fired it at the limestone. Perhaps it was because he was in a good mood, but he wasn't even angry with the other man for being an idiot and not hearing the order.

"Limestone is predominately found in Africa," The Huntsman said, increasing the firepower tenfold, "It is not, however, found anywhere that I know of in this hemisphere. So, there is something very, very strange about this."

Gripping the shaft of the staff, a green light flashed at the head of the staff and that was his indication that the change was successful. Picking up the walk talkie from the table, he pressed the button on the side and looked over to the other side of the mine facing them. There stood another platform crawling with dozens of men, "You have one minute to take a full photographic spread of the mine and send it to the Huntsgirl in New York."

"Yes Huntsmaster," The Platform Commander affirmed.

"I also want you to bring the camera into the mine when we break it down as well," The Huntsman said, "Send those photographs to her as well."

* * *

><p><strong>New York – Central Computer Center of the Huntslair.<strong>

"I don't recognize them," Rose said as she and the head of the ancient language division and symbols stood at the large screen, "It is most definitely not a language that was ever based out of that region. Any ideas?"

The older woman's eyes widened as something hit her. She walked over to a small screen that was adjacent to the large screen and brought up her files to run against the photographs that were taken in the mine. She had seen these before. The elegant language and symbols of flying creatures, suns, stars, the moon, fire and orbs that resembled the Earth, they had been found all over the world, in fact on every continent. The language was similar to Latin, but it was strange, from the carbon dates on the other finds that were like this one, this language predated Latin by at least a millennia.

"I have seen it before," She said breathlessly as the computer did indeed match the writing and drawings on the wall, "But we have no references to translate it and it's always been a dead end. We can only interoperate it."

Rose narrowed her eyes at the new photograph, "Well those are obviously the stars, the sun, the moon and the earth. And doesn't that look like a-…"

"…Dragon," The Language specialist finished.

The Huntsgirl narrowed her eyes further at the photo and discovered elegantly painted words at the top of the limestone wall. She pointed to the words and read them out loud, "_Gemmas fecitque ei coronam deposuit imperio hic Caesareae Maiestatis, defensor imperii Carrier rectae, Empress Majarhet, Empress of DOMINUS Summi terrae et terram de DOMINUS Draco Empire_."

"It's written in perfect Latin," The older woman breathed, "I can read it perfectly, it says: _Deposited here are the Imperial Crown Jewels made for her Imperial Majesty, Defender of the Empire, Carrier of the line, Empress Majarhet, Empress of the Earth and Supreme Autocrat of the Earth, Autocrat of the Draco Empire_."

A chill went through her as she took in the words before her, and before she could stop her inward thoughts, the older woman got up from the chair and headed for the door of the room, "This is the first piece of evidence that we've gathered on the Dragon Empire, other than the old stories, I have to tell the Historical Head, you inform the Huntsmaster."

Rose nodded and once she was sure that the other woman had left the room. She then sat down at the computer terminal and took control of it and pressed print. For months now, since she and Jake had gotten together, she had been passing information to him and his Grandfather and he needed to see this. Crown Jewels from a Dragon Empire? Rose knew that they would want to see this and maybe there was something to these Jewels that they needed to know about, perhaps it was setting off a chain of events that would be mutually horrible.


	3. Chapter 2 – Family Matters

**Chapter 2 – Family Matters**

"They would be foolish to even attempt to try and remove the items from the depository," Lao Shi studied the photographs that Rose had brought himself and Jake, "I feel that I should just let it happen and let the magic that protects the items inside the depository kill the Huntsmaster, but I wouldn't wish a fate like that on my worst enemy."

17 Year Old, Jake Long raised an eyebrow, "Not even on the Huntsmaster?"

"Jake," Lao Shi fixed his Grandson with a sharp glare, "If by some chance that the Huntsmaster even manages to get past the barrier around the case, if he touches whatever was put into that crypt by our Ancestors, it will kill him violently. His body will literally be wrenched in half and his insides will literally implode. It's a violent death. The only people who can get past the barrier and touch the items are members of the Imperial Family."

Rose crossed her legs, "How do you know all of this exactly?"

Getting out of his chair, the elderly Lao Shi shuffled over to a large bookshelf that was in the corner of the room. Noticing that his Grandfather was having trouble pulling a rather large book from the shelf, Jake got up and joined him at the book shelf, "Which one?"

"It's a series," Lao Shi studied the markings on the bottoms of the spines of the whole shelf of books until his eyes lit up and he pointed to the last book on the shelf, "That one, all we'll need to do is cross reference the location of the crypt with the list of them."

Rose raised her eyebrow from the table, "Wait? If you have whole series of books detailing this whole thing, the first one has to be at least five, six thousand years old. I also have to ask the question of why you have them and why they aren't in a library-…"

"Because the Dragon Council doesn't know that they exist," Lao Shi said as he and Jake approached the table. When Jake set it on the table in front of his Grandfather, Lao Shi opened the book, "When the books were made, they were made imbued with the powers of the Imperial Family to never age or disintegrate and to be bound for the rest of time. I have them because they were passed down to me from my father and from his father alike. It's the history of our family from its founding. Every word is an actual account of it all."

"Gramps, are you saying what I think your saying?" Jake's mouth actually widened.

Lao Shi nodded, "My Great Grandfather was the last person to claim the title of Emperor and Autocrat of the Dragons, though nothing ever came of it other than the fact that we started to use the title again. My Grandfather kept the title, but he styled himself with the title of Prince Imperial and gave the title of Archduke and Archduchess to my Father and Aunt. My father chose to retire the title with me, and I choose to continue that decision."

"You're descended from the Imperial Family of the Dragon Empire?" Rose glanced at Jake.

"We _are_ the Imperial Family," Lao Shi corrected her, "My Aunt was the last one who knew about it, and I am the only person who knows this secret other than the those with the great gift. When the Empire was abolished, the Dragon Council made it a standing law to forbid the Imperial Family to live. It was a closely guarded secret and if the Council should ever find out, our entire family and our descendants could face death or banishment."

Jake narrowed his eyes, "What's the great gift and who has it exactly?"

"The two brothers, the founders of the Empire and the two founders of our family were given a gift, the gift of immortality," Lao Shi explained sagely as he looked through the book, "They could choose to pass it to their children and so on and so forth, and the people who had the gift could break it at will and die natural deaths if they chose to do that. Now this is the part where your question will be answered, so listen to me carefully."

Rose leaned closer and Jake crossed his arms over his chest, "The Gift worked as long as you were not killed by another, if you avoided fighting you lived forever. The eldest brother was killed in his conquest of modern day Germany, but he close to eleven children. When the youngest brother assumed the throne, his chief rival was his eldest nephew Marrierk, but the Emperor was able to fight him off. But about 1,500 Years into the reign, the Emperor grew senile until his mind completely gave out and he didn't remember a thing about himself, his youngest daughter and his most favorite, Majarhet was made his regent and a year later, was crowned Empress. She was beloved by the Empire and during her reign, she took steps to lessen the Empire's grip on the Human Race, which didn't sit well with Marrierk. So he staged a coup."

"And what happened next?" Jake asked, he was very interested in this story, which was amazing, considering that his Grandfathers stories typically bored him.

"With the support of the Imperial Guard and most of the Nobles, he told the Empress that unless she wished to die, she needed to step down and give up her immortality, as well as convince her father to do the same thing," Lao Shi explained as he finally found the section of the Imperial Depositories, "Our very distant Grandmother was a very shrewd woman and she wanted to protect her father, so she made a deal with him. She would step down and give him the throne and she would convince her children to give up their gifts and leave the Isle, in exchange for safe passage and no problems given to them once they were in exile. Marrierk accepted, and when the Empress ordered her children to give up their gifts and leave the Isle, her side of the family, our side as well, lost their immortality. But she and her father-…"

"Kept theirs, that's what you mean? Right?" Rose asked.

Lao Shi nodded, "But they were not the only ones that kept their gifts."

* * *

><p>The chamber was amazing simple in its design but no less amazing. It was a single chamber with one giant case in the middle that was surrounded by four small stone pillars on each side with sculptures with what he could only assume were dragons with ruby eyes on top of them. But it was what was inside the case that caught his eye. There were at least three crowns inside the case, the first one and the highest was by far was encrusted with diamonds and rubies and covered in gold. At the base of the set of crowns was a gold scepter placed in some sort of rack for it.<p>

Lucas could sense the extremely powerful magic radiating off of it, "Open it, I want that scepter."

He made a motion with his hands to two of the Hunters behind him and as they approached the case, two of the Dragon idols eyes turned a bright red and an invisible shield of some sort suddenly surrounded the case. The Huntsman's eyes widened and when he stepped forward to lay the tip of his finger on the shield, he was thrown back at least ten feet onto the floor. He had never seen something so powerfully protected. He had to have it now.

Not sure how to precede from the point on, the Huntsman put his hand behind the closest Hunter to him and pushed the poor unsuspecting person at the barrier. It happened so fast that he could remember what came first: the man's body being picked up and wrenched by some invisible force that surrounded the case, or the mess of goo that the man became after his insides exploded. Not sparing another glance to the pile of matter that was once a human being, he looked up to the case and turned to his aide that had followed him into the depository, "Fly and extraction team in and a team to determine how to at least subvert that barrier, I want that scepter."

* * *

><p><strong>Budapest, Hungary<strong>

When you had lived as long as she had, time seemed to be irrelevant. She had lived through every major event in the course of Human History and when you had seen it all and the evolution of humanity from a primitive group of savages living in huts, to millions of people living in metropolises and driving around in automobiles, everything faded out. Time, faded out, the noise of the passing years, did not and sometimes she wished that she still lived in the period the Black Death when it was passing through Europe.

The noise of the inner cities was too much for her when she sought quiet.

That's why she and her father lived in this secluded home in the Transdanubian Mountain range that ran close to the Capital City of Budapest. No one ever bothered them there, it was close to a local market and when they needed to find inner peace and quiet, all they had to do was step outside and mediate. Of course, they hadn't spent the past 4,500 Years in the mountain of Budapest. Their story was something of an interesting one, her father had met some of the most famous people in history, she had as well and she also had served some of them directly.

Just after she, her father and their side of their family had been banished from the Imperial Isle, she and her father had gone to what would become Europe. They had made their way to the Anglo Saxon Tribes of the Nordic Countries that would later invade what is now Great Britain. She had used her powers to ensnare the Barbarians with her charm and make it appear to them as if she and her father were not any different and that they were to be respected. They hadn't actually been involved in the English Conquests, but 500 Years after settling down, they had made a pilgrimage from the Nordic Countries to England and they wouldn't leave the Island Nation until the seventeen hundreds.

By that time, she had begun to refer to herself as _'Margret' _instead of her birth name of _Majarhet_. She had met an entire cast of famous historical figures under the name that she had carried for the past three thousand years. In her travels with her father, she had met everyone from Henry VIII to Marie Antoinette to Winston Churchill. All things considered, her doctorates in World History that she held in five different countries and the several languages that she spoke fluently were not at all surprising.

"Majarhet?" Her father asked from the doorway of their home.

Her father had begun a steady recovery from his complete and total memory loss during the middle ages and in the hundreds of years that had passed, he had almost completely recovered, but he remembered nothing of the final years of his reign as the Emperor and her subsequent reign as regent. Or what the cause of his dementia really was set on by, because she remembered everyday of her entire life with sharp accuracy.

She suspected that she would never know the explanation.

She turned and offered her father a smile, any sign of her father's five thousand years had never shown, he still looked at young as thirty, she still looked as if she was twenty five. She supposed that the reason that her own father looked slightly older then her, was because of the time that he had accepted Amal's gift which was in his early thirties. She had accepted it on her twenty forth birthday, "What is it father, was the market out of drinks?"

"No," Su-Chin, or Stuart for his modern name, said. "I was overcome with this feeling of impending doom, I had to pull the car over or I would crash. I haven't felt this feeling in a very long time, it's as if something as been set into motion and we're about to be pulled into it all. What are you feeling?"

Majarhet turned back to the breeze and took a deep breath in. In the past five thousand years, she had never lost her inherit powers of foresight. Her father had it as well, but he preferred to use his powers of charisma and charm and relying on her foresight to guide the way. They had worked as a duo for 4,500 Years and it hadn't failed once. It had even saved their lives in 1944 when Nazi Germany Invaded Hungary and they fled to America well ahead of the German army, before World War II had even started in fact.

But when she reached out this time to see the future, she saw nothing but a swirling dark pool and blood. However, it was the last image in her mind that sent a chill of fear in her mind, it was of _her_ crown. The crown that she had buried thousands of years ago and fused with a curse that would murder the person who tried to steal it violently. She had buried it for a reason, it was symbolic, sure, but symbols meant everything in the Imperial Court:

The last thing that she had ever done as Empress was to have the hereditary Imperial Crown, that crown, her crown, buried deep in the jungles of South East Asia and hidden from her cousin, Marrierk. She knew that once he was clear to become Emperor after she, her father and her side of their family gone, he would have to be crowned. He would be crowned with a crown that would be have to be quickly made and the jewels themselves wouldn't be the traditional ones. The Scepter was imbued with magic that could make one the ruler of the earth and the crown was a symbol of respect that the courtiers never turn against you.

If Marrierk did not have any of those things, he would not have the power to rule the Empire and he would not have the backing and the respect of nobles and courtiers like she and her father had. It was her final revenge and she would have given everything to have seen the look on his face when he realized that she had hidden them from him and kept no record of the location.

She knew that if those jewels had remained hidden from the world, the balance of nature would remain in balance and her cousin couldn't have the power to rule the earth. But now, something had upset the stillness of that depository and there was a very real possibility that the jewels could come back to the world and if that happened, pure hell would be unleashed.

With that crown, a madman could control the powers of all Dragon Kind by commanding their respect and allegiance, and with that scepter a madman could wipe out millions and conquer countries with a movement of the wrist. If there was one reason that she hadn't broken her gift and died thousands of years ago, other than to be with her father, it was to make sure that those jewels would be disturbed from their resting place.

And now someone had entered veil of magic around it and broken the stillness of it, and she suspected that with the vision of darkness and blood, this situation was about to give birth to her worst nightmare and the reason that she had hidden those jewels in the first place.

Breaking her trance, her dark eyes shot open and she turned around, she had to warn somebody. If she remembered correctly, the depository was built it what was now modern day Vietnam. She needed to get to it quickly, there were no other options. No one could be allowed to retrieve those powerful jewels. It would take an enormous amount of power to break the barriers around the case itself and only a member of the Imperial Family could walk through the barrier without any trouble.

She would go to Vietnam, fly their on her Dragon Wings, it was fast, retrieve the jewels, destroy anyone who attempted to stop her and hide them again herself. Yes, that's what she would do, "Father, I'm going to be going on a little trip and I don't know when I will return to you."

Majarhet had said this without turning around, but her father would not have any of that. In her mind, she still regarded him as an Emperor and she would follow his command only if he remembered the fact that he had been an Emperor at one time, "You're not going anywhere without me."

"It could be dangerous," Majarhet retorted.

But her father's response was a convincing one, as she felt her body being raised from the ground by a gentle grip and turned around by a gentle shove. Her father stood there with an amused look on his face as he levitated his daughter with one finger, "Darling, if there are those who seek to cause you harm wherever your going, it will be dangerous, for them."

"Very well," She relented with a smile, "We leave in an hour, very well?"

* * *

><p>It had woken him, after such a long time, he was awake and it was all thanks the fool that had caused that powerful disturbance. There was only one thing that could have caused him to awaken from his sleep. It was the smell of power, the power that only his family could wield.<p>

At last it had surfaced, after all these years of searching for it.

He smiled.

He could at last act.


	4. Chapter 3 – Targeted

**Chapter 3 – Targeted **

She loved Jake, she really did and she wasn't ashamed to admit it to herself – but there was still something inside of her that was loyal to her Uncle and Rose couldn't help that. All of her life, she had been expressly and singularly loyal to him, but that had changed the night she found out who Jake really was. Her personality, her loyalties and her beliefs were turned on their head that night and now that she was faced with a decision to let the Huntsman die or not, she didn't know what side to choose. If he died, then she'd by killing the only family that she had left – but if he lived, then the first person that she had ever felt some genuine love for would be at more risk than ever.

Taking a deep breath in outside of the briefing room – she straightened down the front of her crisp uniform and reached over to open the large blast doors to the conference room. Putting a scowl on her face, she watched as all of the Huntsman's lieutenants all stood up from rectangular briefing table and stood at attention for her. Now that she was older – the Huntsman had made it perfectly clear that she was the eyes, ears and will of the Huntsman when he was gone and she was to be obeyed. Striding to the head of the table, she held her hand up in a crisp salute and took a seat in the oversized chair that belonged to her Uncle, "At ease Gentleman, our Supreme Master is standing by for a live teleconference from the sight – he will demand all of our information that we've gathered on the structure, he will not be pleased if there are no answers and I don't have to tell you all what that will entail, understood?"

They all nodded, and Rose proceeded to nod once, before her hand went to the keypad next to her and a large screen began to lower itself from the ceiling of the large vaulted conference room. When it was finally completely lowered, the screen hummed to life and the intimidating face of her Uncle appeared on it. His piercing gaze could bore holes in everyone, but when his sights turned to the Huntsgirl, his gaze softened and he looked at her with a pleased expression, "You've done well Huntsgirl – I've received reports the Language Expert that the inscription on the tomb and that the carbon dating is back, care to give me a report?"

"There are no reports of the Dragon's ever having an Empire – much less an empire that controlled the entire world," Rose reported, although she knew that it was a blatant lie, "And our records do not go back that far."

"How old is this structure?" The Huntsman raised an eyebrow.

Rose looked down to the report in her hand, "From what we have, the exterior of the depository is over two thousand years old."

"Curious," The Huntsman whispered to himself, "We are having troubling breaching the contents of the depository itself – can anyone tell me why?"

Shaking her head, Rose set the paper down in front of her and crossed her hands together, "We are not able to find out yet, but I can assure you Master, we will find a way to break the field."

This was so torturous, she was going down a road in which there was no way to win, he would never be able to break it, she was sure of that. She wasn't going to tell him to try and touch the field, that would kill him, but she had to keep in mind that if he did go ahead do that that – it wouldn't be her responsibly, "See that you do – it will be your responsibility to oversee the operations of the Huntsclan while I am here in this godforsaken jungle. I will not be leaving this country until I get my hands on what is in that depository – I want every effort to be focused on breaking it, cancel all ongoing projects, every department, every resource, I want that field down, no excuses."

Rose sighed and nodded, "Yes Huntsmaster."

From this moment on, it was going to Jake and the Dragons problem to deal with the Huntsman – she would be able to handle things on her end.

* * *

><p>Taking a deep breath in, she blew the layer of dust that had gathered on the large ancient tome – she had even touched this book in two hundred years, her families journals of all of the items that they pledged to guard with their lives and their power. Running her finger down the table of contents, she smiled as she laid her eyes on the page of what she needed. The Imperial State Crown and the Scepter of Power – they were symbolic manifestations of her family's power on earth, as well as a literal manifestation. The person who wielded both of those items had the power to rule the entire Earth and she could not let certain types have them. Her family had given too much of their own blood and their own treasure to restore the natural balance of things and if one maniac managed to get the crown and the Scepter, the price that they had paid would not be worth it whatsoever.<p>

"No one must ever be allowed to even touch that crown or scepter," Majarhet said as she flipped through the pages of the large book, "All other concerns are secondary – do you understand me?"

She turned and smiled at her father as a look of recognition came over his face, she knew exactly what he was thinking. When he saw a picture of the crown and scepter, a fond smile was on his face, "I can still remember the feel of the jewels on the rim of the crown, the feeling of the scepter in my hand, so much power, such pure, unbridled and unlimited amounts of power at my disposal and our family's disposal, why did we ever give that up?"

"You don't remember don't you?" Majarhet asked with a raised eyebrow.

Her father nodded, "Flashes – however, the events surrounding your dethronement and our banishment from the Isle are still unknown to me."

Majarhet smiled sadly and shook her head before turning back to the book, "You need not concern yourself with that father, come we need to get there as fast as possible."

* * *

><p>"This must be done in absolute secrecy," Lao Shi instructed his grandson as Fu Dog continued to throw ingredients into a bubbling caldron, "Word of this must not get out, it could lead back to the Dragon Council and when that happens, we face banishment, maybe even death if they feel that threatened by us."<p>

Fu turned and looked a Lao Shi skeptically, "It's been thousands of years, you still think that they're that paranoid?"

"Of course," He nodded and suddenly glared at the dog, Jake looked up from the table and joined his grandfather in the expression, "And don't you go telling anyone about this either, if it happens, I'll know what it was you."

"And if that happens, we're going to offering the Dragon Council freshly filleted Shar-Pei on a silver platter," Jake added before looking back down to the table.


End file.
